What Are You Afraid Of?
by SonofUlti
Summary: Why have games become so realistic? What is the true intent of the game you seek to enjoy?


What is the most frightening thing you can think of? There is actually a unanimously correct answer to this question. It was first understood how to answer this question when man began to think. By going into the darkest and most horrific part of the brain could one finally understand what one certain fear causes the body to go into hyperdrive and activate the "fight or flight" response. This question isn't only aimed toward humans. Insects, animals, sea creatures, any living being is ultimately condemned to choose fear or curiosity at this one, simple piece of knowledge. The unknown.

The brain is hardwired to collect data from all kinds of aspects within life. Everything you see, touch, smell, any sense at all, is hardwired into your brain forever. Over time, the brain uses previous data collected throughout ones life to explain the unexplainable. When there is a new piece of data for the mind to collect, a person will try and explain said piece of information based on similar experiences in the past. This is how we are made to think. Our minds are made to know everything we sense no matter what it takes. But, when the mind has used up all resources to explain certain pieces of information all hell breaks loose. The body produces adrenaline causing you to run faster, farther, sweat, and breathe heavier. Our minds use all the energy that is supposed to explain the piece of information and injects it into all our muscles to get away or face the abomination. This is why people are afraid of the dark, of monsters, of heights. The thrill is unknown to them. Their body isn't prepared to explain what lies ahead. Some become curious and channel their adrenaline in ways unimagined. The mind does everything it can to stop the person, but ultimately, they enjoy the thrill. These are the ones who are unafraid. They are the heroes in the storybooks, overseas fighting for our freedom, the ghost-hunters that explain the unexplainable. These people fight for the thrill. They don't listen to their minds.

Sometimes when you go too far for pleasure, too far for that buzz of enjoyment, too far for your curiosity, you forget the reason of fear. Fear is there for one simple reason: to not suffer brutal consequences.

_The videos you are about to see are from the CIA's Top Secret Paranormal evidence files. They have been examined by doctors, police, paranormal specialists, and even priests who have yet to explain the contents within these logs. Please note that these videos contain graphic and disturbing clips. _

**V-Log #1 January 13th, 2014. 10:01 PM**

"My name is Daniel Smith. I am a twenty-two year old male from Raleigh, North Carolina. My life is pretty simple for the most part. I am a college student that works two jobs on the side. I enjoy gaming, going out with friends, and spending time with my brother and sister. I'm a pretty simple guy apart from one thing: I have been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

I don't let it get in the way of my social life, mainly because I haven't really told anyone, aside from my family. I can't bare to relive the nightmare by explaining the reason to someone that can't help me. Honestly, I debated whether to make these videos because I already know the outcome at the end.

My therapist told me that this would help. Possibly by getting this story off my chest, after holding it in for three years, would help with the night terrors that keep happening. I have literally tried everything, so I'll do my best not to be awkward as I talk to nobody." *Chuckles*

"Daniel! It's time for dinner!"

"Shit! Gotta cut this one short."

_Daniel leaves the screen, forgetting to turn off the webcam, leaving it in total darkness. Seconds later, his face immediately pops back on screen._

"Fuck. How do you even cut off the recording? Is it this one? ..No..oh here we."

_There is a video tear and the screen goes black. The voice heard calling Daniel is presumed to be his mother._

**V-Log #2 January 15th, 2014. 8:37 PM**

"Alright, so I intended to finish my last V-log yesterday but things came up. Anyways, let me try and explain what happened.

I graduated high school in May of 2010 with a full ride to East Carolina University pursuing Computer Science. I devoted most of my high school days in the computer labs. Over half of my classes were online because I just felt it easier to learn that way. I aced every single one and decided to learn how to code. See, all of my friends were into playing games as much as I was. Computer games and console games captivated most of our times spent together. So we all decided that we wanted to make it a career. All four of us dreamed about making a huge advancement in the gaming field...boy did we.

I was the brains of the operation. I had taken every coding class possible and even taught myself basic graphic design and video editing in my spare time. My main focus was on virtual reality. It has been pursued many times in the past, but no real breakthroughs had occurred. The Oculus Rift was still in development so we had to make our own version. Zach was the tech genius. He could take anything and make something useful out of it. Him and Joey made this ungodly mechanism that went over your eyes, but it got the job done.

So, now it was my turn to figure out what game we would do. Horror games were my personal favourite. I loved getting scared and being in control, unlike horror movies. Regardless, I had to find out what scared people. I couldn't really base it off what I was scared of, so we all decided to do a survey on campus. Come to find out, the majority were afraid of getting raped, the darkness, or ghosts. Obviously we couldn't put rape in the game, but ghosts and darkness were expected. Clowns, rollercoasters, and other stupid things were part of the lesser majority, but one thing stood out to me. Only about two people came up with the answer that spawned the idea of my game. The unknown. After some hard thinking, I realized that "the unknown" really frightened everyone. All the answers I got fell under that category. They don't know what lurks in the darkness, what a ghost is capable of doing to them, or even how to react during a rollercoaster. When you aren't in control, you are scared. Knowing that something else can break through the barriers of your mind and take control of your feelings is the most disturbing thought you can have."

_Daniel stares blankly at the screen for about forty seconds without moving. We presumed the video was paused until we noticed his chest moving as he breathed. He eventually blinks his eyes and looks away before he speaks again. _

"I'll tell more later. I'm feeling kind of tired right now."

_The audio becomes distorted when Daniel says, "I'm feeling kind of tired right now." It seems to play over itself twice with the second voice being a few octaves lower than his normal voice. _

**V-Log #3 January 18th, 2014. 9:48 PM**

"Well, I've been sick the past few days so I haven't really felt like doing this, but I have to finish my story.

As I said before, 'the unknown' was the main motive for the development of my game. I decided to make the prototype as a maze for the player to walk through. Over time, the maze would change directions. The walls would turn so the player could not memorize the pattern of the maze after many play-throughs. I had a creature chase after the player throughout the maze to add the fear factor. Sounds would distort throughout to give the player a sense of excitement. The farther you got in the maze, the more the sounds would disturb you. I took the idea from the popular flash game Slender, where you find pages in a dark forest. The more pages you find, the more noises would play adding to the creepy ambiance. Anything from a distant scream of a girl to the sound of your own heartbeat would be heard through the player's headphones.

Well, after long hours of coding and researching, the prototype was ready for us to test it. David was the first to test it, he was the most experienced of us when it came to video games.

_For twenty-three seconds, the video seemed to loop back to Daniel saying, "David was the first to, David was the first to," before cutting off._

**V-Log #4 January 19th, 2014 7:00 AM**

_This log shows an empty room. Daniel is nowhere to be seen in the footage for the first few minutes. At about 7:06 AM the door to the room opens and the outline of a figure, presumed to be Daniel, is standing facing the webcam. The figure stands, unmoving, for two full hours before the door slams shut by an unknown force. The screen then goes black. _

**V-Log #4 January 19th, 2014 3:15 PM**

"So I reviewed the footage from last night and apparently my computer overheated causing the recording software to fuck up, i'm not really sure.

Anyways, the tests went pretty normal for a while. All four of us tried it out and loved it. David couldn't get enough of it. He was the first to suggest we get more people around campus to try it out and give us suggestions on how to improve it. We all agreed and after having dozens of kids try it out, I got to work on the suggestions. Everything from the sounds, to the monster, to the maze was all changed. One boy suggested we play this game called Amnesia - The Dark Descent to help come up with a more fear-inducing gameplay. I found the game and loved the impact. It's a first-person survival horror game where you have to navigate through a haunted castle avoiding monsters and solving puzzles. The hook of this game is when you are in darkness too long, your character starts to hallucinate.

Before using the idea, I wanted to try and contact the developers of the game for approval before making a knock-off of their idea. After explaining that I was in college, what my major was, and the project we had going, they agreed of course. They actually wanted to send me a few of their discs and drives that had in-depth information on the game and how it was created. They just wanted most of the credit when and if it hit big. Regardless, I couldn't wait to get started.

I skipped my classes on a Friday to get an early weekend start on the game and got pretty far into it. I swapped the maze idea for an abandoned insane asylum. Also, I took out the monster idea and had deranged people come after you or pop up in windows. I decided to take out some of the audio and make it completely silent. I would still put in the distant scream and the heart beat, but no other unknown background filler. Doors would creak, your footsteps, and when you were attacked, the people screamed and clawed at you; These were the main audio pieces of the game that were promoting the realistic feel.

I'll get more into it tomorrow because I have to go into work."

_The screen goes black after Daniel closes his laptop. _

**V-Log #5 January 19th, 2014 7:00 PM**

_The camera shows a dark room again. Daniel is still nowhere to be seen, but is assumed that he is still at work. Although, it is unknown how the laptop was reopened. The door to the room is shut and there is no noise. At 7:06 PM, the door to the room slowly opens and the dark figure from before stands unmoving for three full minutes before entering the room. There is no movement of the figure suggesting that it is walking; it seems to glide across the floor and out of view of the camera. _

_It isn't until 9:06 PM that the door shuts from no known force and the laptop closes, shutting off the webcam._

**V-Log #6 January 20th, 2014 6:05 AM**

_Daniel's eyes are bloodshot and tired-looking. He rubs them and yawns before speaking._

"Well, I couldn't sleep for shit last night after work. I kept having nightmares that would wake me up, but I forget them as soon as I tried to recall them. Anyways, I guess I'll just get today's log out of the way.

After I finished up most of the new gameplay, we were all on Christmas break. I really needed the guys to help test out my new version, but everyone was busy or had plans. Well what else would you do in this situation? I tried it myself."

_This is another point at which Daniel stares again at the screen, except he wasn't just staring blankly, he seemed to be looking at something in his screen._

"What the..."

_A horrified look appears on Daniel's face as he backs away from the screen and runs out of the room._

_Twenty minutes pass before Daniel walks back into the room and sits down at the chair. His face is looking downward until he sits down. As he looks up at the screen, a video-tear happens for a split second. If you pause the video at the second daniel looks up, his eyes are completely sunken in and black. When the video cuts back to normal, Daniel continues on with his story as if nothing happened. _

"When I put the headgear and headphones on, it felt almost too real. I walked up to the asylum and looked up at it. It's raining and there are flashes of lightning every few seconds. I walk inside and find that everything is completely silent. I had the heart monitor strapped to my chest so my heartbeat was the only sound in my headphones.

As I walked through the asylum, I noticed a few unbelievable changes. The rooms and hallways were in unnaturally smooth detail. I continued through the asylum, finding the flashlight, keys to rooms, and the hidden objects I had placed throughout the game as a point system. The weirdest part was, the monsters hadn't appeared. I heard the screams, my footsteps, the general noises; nothing else. That was, until I got to the basement.

See, I made a series of tunnels and rooms in the basement that was sort of identical to the main floor. It was darker and I made the footsteps sound different, but there were other sounds as well. I would hear an extremely light scratching sound on the concrete walls if I would stand still. Sometimes, I would hear low whispering right in my ear and maniacal laughter far in the distance. This...disturbed me. I made every fiber of this game and had no recollection of putting those in there.

When I had found most of the objects I came to one final room. I also had no recollection of making this either. It was a tall wooden door with a giant lock on it. No windows or even a handle. After constant searching, I found a black key that had odd markings on it. Well, I say they were markings, but it was actually a phrase spelled in reverse, "FEAR AWAITS." I was still baffled at all of this, but it was my curiosity that got the best of me. I found the door and used the key on it. After a long wait in complete silence, I figured the game had crashed on me. It wasn't until I almost took the headgear off that I heard the creaking of a door open. As I looked through the headgear once more, I found that the door was wide open.

After a while in the game, I make the flashlight die out. One of the things you have to find are batteries scattered throughout the asylum. You can also find matches to help give you a short supply of light until you can hopefully find some spare batteries. Well, I was fucking out of batteries. I had three matches left; so I had nowhere to go except the room."

_Daniel's face turns horrified_

"But- but when I st-struck the match..it just blew out as soon as they looked up at me. Oh God the eyes. They were everywhere...dozens of..eyes."

_As soon as the video hits 7:06 AM, Daniel abruptly quiets and then starts sobbing and looks off screen to the right. _

"I'm sorry okay! I didn't know I would let them out! He made-"

_The video turns black and ends_

**V-Log #7 January 23th, 2014 11:02PM**

_Daniel is seen standing in the middle of the room with his back turned to the screen. He is completely nude except for a bag covering his head. His arms are outstretched and he has three gashes on his back. A deep growling sound is the only thing you hear from the video. Daniel stays silent standing in this position until 11:59 PM. The video ends at 12:00 AM the next morning. _

_Upon further investigation of this tape, the audio was increased intensely. The deep voice seems to repeat the phrase, _"He comes"_ throughout the video._

_**V-Log #8 February 6th, 2014 3:13 PM**_

_Zach is the one in this log. He is silent for about thirty seconds._

"So, I heard that Daniel was making these video logs and I just wanted to come and finalise them for him by telling everyone what happened.

Daniel was found lying in his room here a couple weeks ago. He was naked, and cut up pretty bad. They took him to the hospital and found that the wounds were self inflicted and that he had tried to kill himself. I haven't gone through these tapes yet, but I know something has to be in here. I just wanted people to know that Daniel is in critical care."

_Zach pauses for a few seconds as he starts to tear up_

"They say that, the wounds...they were so deep and the blood loss was so drastic, that he won't survive. His body is rejecting all medication, and he isn't supposed to make it through the night."

_Zach sobs for a few minutes before continuing_

"I'm gonna find out what happened to you Daniel. I swear it."

_He shuts off the camera_

**V-Log #9 February 7th, 2014 7:05 PM**

_The room is dark once more and the door is shut. At 7:06 PM, the door to the room slowly opens revealing the silhouette of a young man in what seems to be a hospital gown. The man stands in the door staring at the webcam before he cuts the lights on. _

_The figure is Daniel. His gown is bloody from the back and he stands at the light switch for about ten minutes as the bloodstain grows larger on his back. On the bed laid Zach's body. Almost mangled to a point of no recognition. His blue and white shirt was the only indication it was him. Daniel looks over at him and starts laughing maniacally. His body starts to contort unnaturally; his bones start breaking; he leans back and walks on his hands and feet toward the screen. His eyes are pitch black and his mouth in a devilish grin. He laughs for a few seconds before the deep voice erupts from his mouth and says only two words, _

"He's here."

_As stated before, these videos have been investigated to the bone with no real explanation to what exactly happened. The only facts that have been recovered from the crime scene are:_

_\- Daniel apparently used coding and files from the information sent to him by the creators of Amnesia - The Dark Descent within the game he created. _

_\- Zach's body had multiple gashes similar to the ones seen on Daniel's back_

_\- Daniel's whereabouts are still unknown._


End file.
